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Emanuel Demands Answers From FAA

10/01/30: After sabotage, frustrated Mayor Rahm Emanuel says transportation agency needs to investigate how one man was able to have such a crippling effect on a vital system. (Published Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014)

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel blasted the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday, pounding the podium as he urged the agency "work harder and better and smarter" to restore service and wondered how one man had managed to cripple the city's air travel for days.

"How can this happen? How can you have an airport that is so integral to the national and international system with no back-up capacity, that one individual can have this impact?" Emanuel said.

Prosecutors say Brian Howard, 36, of Naperville, entered the Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center in Aurora early Friday morning and caused incredible, strategic damage to the radar facility that handles high-altitude traffic above a large portion of the country's midsection.

They said Howard, who had worked at the facility for eight years and was involved with the facility's communications systems, was upset about recently being told he was being transferred to Hawaii.

Howard's alleged actions forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and cost an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

Why FAA Fire Caused Nationwide Travel Mess

9/26/14: Thousands of passengers were left stranded Friday when a fire set at an FAA facility grounded flights at O'Hare and Midway airports. But Chicago fliers weren't the only ones affected. Phil Rogers reports.